The featured picture shows our campsite in the background. Ours is the small camper over Paula’s right shoulder backed up right to the edge of the creek.
We just returned from our second camper adventure. We rented a 25’ Class C Winnebago out of Deerfield Park, Florida and drove to a campsite on North Lake Okeechobee. This camper, a 2020 model called “Outlook”, had design features that were big improvements over our last camper. First, it had a single slide to accommodate a “walk-around” queen bed. The bed was a bit shorter than a residential queen, but long enough for us. The floor layout of this model had no step-up when entering the rear part of the camper, which obviated tripping (a problem on our previous rental). The galley included a double sink which made washing dishes much easier. Lastly, it had a more comfortable ride, an always-on rear-view camera, and all the modern features of a newer and upgraded cab (adaptive cruise control, lane assist steering, etc.).
On the other hand, this camper had been used hard and the interior was as dirty as a frat house on Sunday morning after a Saturday night Animal House party. Paula cleaned and cursed like a sailor for over an hour before we unpacked at the campsite. The sheets provided were still wet from the washer, so we hung them out to dry. Tommy managed that process and the following bed-making and tried to avoid Paula’s wrathful rampage.
Once everything was sparkling and smelled nice, we settled in and marveled at the sheer beauty of our little berth. It was right on a tributary of the clear water Everglades canal that surrounds the Lake proper and was full of fish, turtles, and an amazing variety of birds.
A Sandhill crane family with their juvenile whirred over the golf course on the other side of the water. Grackles clicked and cawed and fed their squeaking babies at the base of the huge tree that shaded our spot. Herons of all types fished at the water’s edge, as well as ibis, willets, and red-winged black birds. Squirrels were so tame from prior handfeeding that one came up and sniffed Paula’s painted toenails, making sure they weren’t pink treats.
That first night we had dinner on the pad’s picnic table: pre-made shrimp and vegetable stir-fry warmed with rice Paula made on the cooktop. As we didn’t complete our set-up till ~7:00 pm, after dinner we sat in our chairs, and admired the sunset and surrounds until bedtime. No mosquitoes! We were also surprised at how many empty pads there were, and that many large campers appeared uninhabited and buttoned-up.
We slept great on the firm mattress and topper and were up early. As the day promised increasing heat, we breakfasted on cereal and banana, coffee, and got on our walking shoes and backpack with water and snacks. We walked to the amazingly tall hurricane berm (over 25 feet) surrounding Lake Ockeechobee.
There is a paved trail on top of the berm that rings the whole circumference of the lake for 170 miles. With a surface area of 730 square miles, Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the 10th largest in the US. We decided to hike west on the trail which put the lake to our left, and the Okeechobee canal down to our right on the other side of the berm.
The lake is so large that you can’t see all the way across to the other side. But we did see numerous hummocks of wild grass and other vegetation close to shore. A boat ramp provide access, and fishermen stood on the hummocks. The large tropical wetlands canal on the other side of the berm featured lily pads and tall grass, hawks, buzzards, herons, and more.
We saw a single airboat buzzing around with a few people in it. Google maps revealed that Eagle Bay Airboat rides was about two miles from our campground. Later that afternoon Paula called and booked us for an 11:00 a.m. ride the next day.
After walking three miles in a refreshing off-lake breeze, we decided to return to the campsite as the sunshine was heating up fast. On our way back, we walked out on the nearby concrete fishing pier. A 5 foot gator was swimming near by and seeing people watching at the rail, swam to just beneath our position, making Paula worry that people were feeding him (dangerous practice) or more likely, he was used to bait scraps and fish cleanings falling in the water.
After a lunch of peanut butter, banana, and carrot cake spread sandwiches we went to the pool, which was huge, refreshing and almost deserted. A few ladies in a group told us that this campsite was largely populated by snowbirds, and most had left for their northern abodes, to return in October. This explained the quiet and lack of activity we had noted. We did see a few folks traveling in golf carts around the campsite and made acquaintance with an elderly gent and his dog Hoot, who checked in with us each morning, staying to chat a bit. We wandered the campsite, and admired the many different styles and sizes of campers.
That night, we made swordfish steaks on the grill, accompanied by steamed broccoli, and pre-made black eyed peas with bacon and sauteed onions. We played chess after dinner, (a rare victory for Paula) and then turned the dinette into a bed to recline and watch Mission Impossible 2 on the TV and snack on dried fruit, tangelos, and trail mix.
Next morning we took our back-pack and binoculars and walked to Eagle Bay Airboat Rides. It turned out to be a fruit stand, where we paid for our tickets, then walked to the dock and met our guide, Luis Rangel. (which he pronounced Lewis Wrangle). What an amazing adventure! Our guide zipped us through a jungle of lily pads, trees, tall grasses and areas of open water.
There was even a small waterfall. Luis lived on the edge of the water and was amazingly knowledgeable regarding the water and it’s denizens, hurricane history of the area and more. He knew all the names of the plants, pointing out Coastal Plain Willow (“the aspirin tree” whose bark yields aspirin and whose leaves resemble cannabis), and Pickerel weed flower, urging Paula to pick a stalk of the purple cone flower among the cattails.
He advised against walking the shores in the night because of cantankerous roaming small boars (edible) that he hunted from the boat with a crossbow. We saw horned cattle grazing along the bank and crossing the water.
Birds took flight at our passage- herons, egrets, small songbirds flushed from their precarious perch on lily pads. It truly was the highlight of our trip.
Afterwards, our heads spinning with all we’d just seen and heard, we thanked Luis warmly, bought some honey bells from the fruit stand and walked home to a lunch of left-over swordfish sandwiches on toast with mustard, fresh spinach, and scallions. Oh, and the honey bells of course!
After lunch, Tom conducted a pickleball tutorial for Paula on the camp’s nice concrete courts. We managed to get some volleys going, although Paula is clearly in need of more practice! Then we returned to the pool, swam and dozed on pools chairs in the shade of poolside umbrella and chairs.
Dinner that night was pre-marinated chicken thighs and roasted corn on the grill, along with pre-made collard greens, cornbread and bacon. After dinner, Paula did some pre-packing in advance of our morning departure, and we had popcorn, tangelos, and popcorn while watching A Fish Called Wanda. Paula fell asleep halfway thru.
Next morning we packed up fully, and left before 9:00 a.m. Paula drove the Winnibago back to DeerField park. Tom re-parked the camper and retrieved our car from the gated storage facility, and he drove the longer trip back to St. Augustine. We were home and unpacked by 6 o’clock and enjoyed a random dinner of camp meal leftovers.
This trip was great and it was the perfect time of year to go. It wasn’t too hot yet and most of the snowbird’s had already left so it wasn’t crowded. We would definitely return here again!
